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The piece on JEZEBEL is depressing and affirming at the same time. Depressing because it turns out to be true that men have it easier than women in the query market. Since I can’t change my gender, there’s not much I can do about it other than to start marketing myself under a male nom de plume.
It is affirming in that many women and I have been saying this for a long time, that women have a tougher time in the market soley because we are women. That it’s not that our writing is worse than men’s, but that it is perceived to be different from men’s. Her evidence, in which the same agent gave a completely different response to the same piece of writing depending on whether it was written by a man or a woman is chilling.
I still want to believe that perhaps we all have different reactions to writing depending on our moods, but what if it is really, really true that agents are more prepared to reject women simply because they are women?